Slasher – Season 2, Episode 3: “Saint Sebastian”

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Between Good and Evil” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Night of Hunters” – click hereThree years ago. Antoine (Christopher Jacot) hangs out with Renée (Joanne Vannicola) and her partner. After the bar he heads home, going through a dark alleyway. Soon, a vehicle pulls up and stops him. A man gets out, calling him “gay boy” and taunting like a nasty piece of shit. When the man gets physical, Antoine gives him the hippy speech about violence. This guy’s a hateful bigot. But he doesn’t realise Antoine is quite capable of defending himself. Underneath the exterior, there lurks a dangerous man. He puts the bigot’s head in the door of his vehicle and kicks it shut brutally.
Cut to present day. The body of Susan, eyeless and bloody has been found. Everybody sees it, out in the open. So, now what? Antoine’s still very sceptical of the friends. Dawn (Paula Brancati) and Peter (Lovelly Adams-Gray) are defensive about having any part in what’s happened. Everybody argues. Renée tells everybody to shut up and get some rest, that they’ll deal better in the morning. Afterwards, Judith (Leslie Hope) explains to Dawn why they’re all so protective over We Live As One; it’s a place where they’ve all come to feel safe. She’s honest with the girl, that they see the group partly as a threat to that. Dawn doesn’t care; she snoops to find her gun again.Antoine asks Renée to meet him outside, to not let anybody see her leave. They talk together, he shows her the bones of Talvinder (Melinda Shankar), the missing girl. He wants to keep it a secret that they’ve found her. Go back to last summer. Antoine’s out foraging in the woods for mushrooms. This leads him to a rocky enclosure, perfect for shrooms to grow within. Where he stumbles onto the hidden corpse.
Now he explains to Renée he didn’t want it found, it would’ve messed up the land sale. Exactly why has he kept it after that? He says it’s because his DNA is on the body, after he took it from the makeshift grave. He doesn’t want cops poking at “every dark corner” in his life. Hmm, he’s got a figurative skeleton kicking around in his closet, you can be sure of that.
Things are certainly dark at We Live As One. People have lost their trust, entirely, nobody wants to go to sleep out of fear someone might be the killer, lurking amongst the cabins. Wren (Sebastian Pigott) offers to watch the place while some of the friends and those from the retreat get a bit of shut eye. Noah (Jim Watson) bunks in a room with Glenn (Ty Olsson), who luckily has painkillers for his frost bite; under the radar, against the rules of the retreat. Secrets, secrets. There’s always a secret. And Glenn? He’s a bit of a peeping tom.
Three years ago, we see Antoine with his busted eye after the alleyway fight. He’s on edge, uneasy. Renée asks him about the eye, he lies. He laments about the city, the toxic environments, the gay dating scene. They talk about “intentional community.” A way of living in harmony among others who enjoy alternate lifestyles to the foolish societal norm. This is when Renée suggests turning the summer camp her parents owned, Camp Motega, into one such community. The beginning of a dream. Or a nightmare, as in current day they’re trying to find a better hole where they can put Tal’s remains. But the ground is hard, so they’ll have to divide her into pieces, bury them in different shallow graves. Living the fucking dream. They decide it may be better to turn the skeleton over, to give the girl a proper grave, and to give her family closure.Everyone at the cabin is ready to get going, Peter offers to go on a trek. Some will go, others will stay behind. Renée, Dawn, Mark (Paulino Nunes), and Glenn will go with Peter, as the rest remain at the cabins. Antoine says goodbye to his close friend, offering her a walkie to keep in touch. Left at the retreat, Noah’s stolen the gun from Dawn without her knowing. That’ll absolutely cause a problem at some point.
In the forest, the group led by Peter hears a noise nearby. Like an animal. They find tracks, believing it’s a wolf. But they have to keep going. Back at the cabin, Judith comes upon a note Wren hide for her, there’s obviously a deep connection of some sort, and I’m eager to discover where it’s taking us, plot-wise. In another room, Noah looks for painkillers again; he sees a bottle prescribed to a “Benny Ironside.” Curious, no?
Peter and the rest reach Gene’s place after some time. They get to a phone only to see it’s dead. They try to vehicles outside, but nothing’s working. Glenn’s beginning to get pissed, whereas Mark tires talking him down. One thing is positive: everyone is edgy, scared, paranoid, and stubborn, all at once.
Outside the cabins, Keira (Madison Cheaatow) goes for wood and a rotting hand drops out. This sends Antoine over the edge, actually using Tal’s name to confront Noah. This is when the gun comes out. So Antoine has to disarm him. His “vow of non–violence” breaks, again. Noah claims the creepy guy Owen they knew killed her, reeling off more excuses. Right as the other group make it back.Antoine’s intent on getting rid of the corpse, for good. Meanwhile, Noah has lost the gun for his friends again, and he also believes they blame him for Tal; why? Either way, they’re constantly at odds, new things coming up all the time to drive that wedge in harder.
Out in the shed, Antoine can’t find Tal’s remains. They’re gone from their hiding place. And the parka killer is lurking. He puts the auger right into Antoine’s guts before revving it up and going to town on his innards. Very, very messy gore.
Later on while Glenn is frying some meat, he tosses a slab in the pan. Only for Renée to see it has part of Antoine’s tattoo on it. Yummy.Really enjoying Season 2. Can’t get enough, honestly. Trying not to binge them too hard, but with Halloween getting closer, that’s tough, y’know?
“Night of Hunters” is up next.

An Update from Father Gore

Seek & Ye Shall Find

Father Gore is first and foremost a passionate lover of film— especially horror. He's also a Master's student at Memorial University of Newfoundland with a concentration in postmodern critical theory, currently writing a thesis which will be his debut novel of literary fiction, titled Silence. He also used to write for Film Inquiry frequently during 2016-17 and is currently contributing to Scriptophobic in a column called Serial Killer Celluloid focusing on film adaptations about real life murderers. As of September 2018, Father Gore is an official member of the Online Film Critics Society.